“Weirdly Warm Winter Has Climate Fingerprints All Over It, Study Says” Article Reflection No. 91 (3/11/2024)

Article: “Weirdly Warm Winter Has Climate Fingerprints All Over It, Study Says”

In the article “Weirdly Warm Winter Has Climate Fingerprints All Over It, Study Says,” journalists Delger Erdenesanaa and Somini Sengupta report on a collection of studies analyzing data on temperatures across the world. As shown in the article, the data collectively point toward the records set over the last several months. The article describes how there are record temperatures for the world's oceans and the month of February. New Jersey research group Climate Central analyzed this information and noticed climate change’s great role in this exacerbating conditions as well. A notable example that markedly shows its impact lies in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the midwest state that faced temperatures almost 5.6 degrees Celsius more compared to winter averages, according to the article. This pattern also shows itself in other cities around the world, such as Jakarta where, despite the relatively small increase in temperatures, climate change’s impacts were found across almost three months, Erdenesanaa and Sengupta write. Moreover, the world’s overall temperatures hit a high in February at 1.77 degrees Celsius over the average measured in the preindustrial period, according to the article. 

This news reminds me of the “concept” where it is theoretically harder to incentivize action if the source of  the issue is not visible or tangible. That may be the case with the greenhouse gas emissions and carbon emissions, but don’t both result in evidence-backed visible consequences? What is the balance that results in action?